Saturday, March 31, 2012

Growing up in a small town in Oklahoma, we didn't have a lot of dining options. We had a few fast food places and a few little local diners, but THE place to eat, was Pizza Hut. It was the place to go after church on Sundays or after a long day on the lake, and especially after Friday night football games.

The thing about our Pizza Hut, is they had some options that I guess you can't find everywhere. When we moved to Kansas City, I was very disappointed to find out I couldn't get Pan Bread(deep pan crust, smothered in garlic butter and melted mozzarella, served with marinara on the side!) or a Supreme Sandwich, which was a toasty, melty sub sandwich with ham, salami and mozzarella cheese, drenched in creamy Italian salad dressing. So, after a few years without, I decided could make them at home.

We have changed up the meats and cheeses a little, and instead of individual loaves, I use a big loaf of bread and cut it up into individual servings(just because it's easier), but the over-all result is still very close. My family LOVES them!

Monday, March 12, 2012

I started working full-time last fall and have been in a constant search for easy(but still tasty) recipes ever since. I love the idea of using my slow cooker for during the week. Throwing it in in the morning and having it ready when I get home is wonderful, but I'm somewhat anti cream-of-anything soup, so that limits me a lot!

Well, I've been looking at various recipes for french dip and decided to give it a try. Now, I'm also not usually a big fan of roast. I know, it's kind of un-American, but I have never been real crazy about it. Even still, I was willing to give it a try.

It was great!

I spruced the sandwiches up a little, by adding sautéed onions and cheese, and we devoured them.

Easy AND yummy! This will definitely be a regular weeknight favorite for us.

Trim excess fat from roast and place in slow cooker. Sprinkle bouillon, rosemary, sugar, and soup mix over roast. Pour in soy sauce and beer(or beef stock) and add water to just short of covering the beef.Cook on low 6-8 hours or until beef falls apart.Reserve juices or "au jus" for dipping.

For SandichesFrench dip beef, shreddedprovolone cheesesautéed onionsFrench rolls (or any "sturdy" bread that can stand up to the au jus)

Toast rolls if desired and top with beef, onions and cheese. Serve with au jus dip on the side.

Monday, January 30, 2012

One of my favorite things to cook from, is my Southern Living cookbook. Pretty much everything I've made out of it has been a hit.

This is one of my favorite desserts from the book. It's always a crowd pleaser and is just wonderful. Plus, you can make as-is, or add lemon, or other flavoring to "jazz" it up a bit. Add a little whipped cream and berries to the finished product, and oh-my-goodness, it is like summer on a plate.

The one pictured, has some lemon juice added to the batter and topped with a lemon glaze. Makes my mouth water, just thinking about it.

Preheat oven to 300°F. Use an electric mixer to mix both butter and cream cheese until creamy. Gradually add sugar and beat for 5 minutes, then add eggs one at a time, allowing each to incorporate before adding more. Stir in lemon and vanilla. Sift flour and salt and add gradually to the mixer, beating until well blended. Pour batter into a well greased and floured bundt pan or tube cake pan. Bake cake at 300 for an hour and 45 minutes, or until a toothpick can be removed cleanly. Place pan on a wire rack and cool for 15 minutes, then remove the cake from the pan and complete cooling on the wire rack.

Friday, January 20, 2012

I've done a couple of posts on pizza already, so this isn't some major, new thing, but I thought it was really good and wanted to share it.

One of our favorite pizza places on the planet is Hideaway Pizza, in Tulsa, Ok. We love the "Tulsa Hurricane" pizza, which is loaded with canadian bacon, bacon, onion, bell pepper, pineapple and jalapeños. I just love the combination of sweet with savory and a little bit of heat.

Sadly, we don't make it back to Tulsa very often, but we do our best to recreate our favorite pizza whenever we can. Usually, we just order that combination on our pizza at our local pizza places, but that can get really pricey, really fast. So we took a shot at making it a home.

I just used my super-easy beer crust and a simple sauce recipe and substituted pepperoni for the canadian bacon. Not quite the same as Hideaway, but it was pretty easy and gave us a little taste of what we were missing.

I also made another crust, topped it with a little butter, sugar and cinnamon, and had a great little dessert to have after dinner.

I really need to remember to make pizza more often. It is so much easier than I want to think it is! It's also so much cheeper than ordering out, and doesn't taste too bad either.

Lightly grease a pizza pan or cookie sheet with olive oil. Spread the dough out with fingers to desired thickness (remember that the dough will rise a bit while cooking). Spread sauce over pizza, layer with the remaining ingredients and bake at 400 degrees for 20 min.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

It's been awhile! I somehow have misplaced the battery charger for my camera, and since I can't charge my camera, I can't take pics. So, I basically haven't been posting recipes because of that. Well, I'm about to order another charger online, but in the meantime I'll just have to use the camera on my phone. It's just really frustrating because I'm a lousy photographer with a good camera, much less with a crappy camera! Hopefully I can still make the food look edible.

Anyway, I made these wonderful pancakes for "brinner" the other night. They are the perfect way to celebrate fall. Bursting with pumpkin, cinnamon, and nutmeg, they are delicious and have become a fall tradition in my house. Add chocolate chips and toasted pecans and they are heavenly!

In a large bowl, whisk together the first eight ingredients (whole wheat flour through nutmeg). In a separate bowl, whisk together the last six ingredients (buttermilk through brown sugar).

Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and stir just until combined. Small lumps are ok. If batter seems too thick to pour, you can gently stir in a little more buttermilk.

Drop pancakes by 1/4 measuring cup onto a hot griddle. If you want to add chocolate chips, sprinkle a few over the cooking pancake. Pancakes are ready to turn when the edges start to look a little dry and you can see small bubbles forming on the surface. Flip and cook until golden brown.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

I hope everyone is enjoying these precious last days of summer. My boys went back to school today, and my preschool started yesterday, so ours is somewhat over, but I am hanging on to the official season for dear life.

I decided to make a little treat for the preschool staff yesterday, to kick off the start of the school year. I had some blueberries and some buttermilk that needed to be used, so I searched the web and found this recipe.

The beauty of this recipe is you can use any berries you like and you can change up the citrus zest to create some yummy combinations. They are moist and fluffy and were wonderful with my iced coffee!

In a large bowl, whisk together the egg, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla.

In another large bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and zest. Gently fold in the berries. With a rubber spatula, fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir only until the ingredients are combined. Do not over mix the batter or the muffins will be tough.

Fill each muffin cup almost full. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 20 - 25 minutes. Transfer to a wire rackand let cool for about 5 - 10 minutes before removing from pan.

Makes 12 regular sized muffins.

Note: If using frozen berries you may have to bake the muffins a little longer than the stated time.